Civan's Dynamic Beam Laser
Electric Vehicles' Battery Cooling Plate Welding.
Civan’s Dynamic Beam Laser Welds Battery Cooling Plates at Feed Rates of >25 m/min Without Defects.
Battery Cooling Plate Welding Highlights
Civan’s dynamic beam-shaping lasers offer the following benefits in cooling plate welding applications:
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Faster production speeds.
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Feed rates > 25 m/min.
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Compatibility with:
Al 3xxx, 5xxx, and 6xxx alloys. -
Reduced costs.
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Fewer CO2 emissions.
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Wide weld seams.
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Good penetration depth.
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Strong, leak-free welds.
Dimples Design
for Battery Cooling Plates
Channels Design
for Battery Cooling Plates
The Construction of Battery Cooling Plates for Electric Vehicles.
EV battery cooling plates regulate the temperature of the battery pack and some of the electronics by circulating coolant between two thin aluminum (Al) plates.
Coolant flow through stamped channels in the base plate requires a tight, hermetically sealed weld with the top plate to prevent fluid leaks. Another critical requirement in EV battery cooler construction is that the welded joints be free of cracks that can lead to mechanical failure.
Automotive OEMs replace combustion engines with electric motors and large battery packs confront a host of new materials joining challenges. One such challenge is in the production of Electric Vehicle Battery Coolers, a critical component in Electric Vehicle thermal management systems.
EV Battery Cooler Joining Challenges.
Today’s EV battery systems require cooling plates measuring about 2.1 x 1.3 meters. The larger cooling plates, combined with new materials that offer improved mechanical properties and recyclability, such as 5xxx and 6xxx Al alloys, push the limits of today’s joining technologies and present significant EV battery cooler joining challenges.
Currently, manufacturers use vacuum brazing technology to join EV battery cooling plates. Brazing, an old joining method, is not energy efficient and requires a large footprint. As a result, it is too expensive, energy intensive, and slow. The brazing process also requires the use of Al 3xxx, a special aluminum alloy that can be brazed.
Manufacturers want to switch to a more economical alloy called Al 5xxx, which is difficult to braze.
ABB Robot Arm.
Challenges with Laser Welding of EV Battery Coolers.
Conventional fiber lasers cannot achieve the high feed rates required to meet increased production demands for EV battery coolers because such welding speeds result in undercut, interface cracks, humping, and porosity, which ruin joint integrity. The maximum feed rate of traditional lasers for welding Al 3xxx is 8–12 m/min. It is less than 15 m/min for Al 5xxx.
Due to feed rate limitations, such laser welding methods are not viable solutions to meet increasing demand, because manufacturers must purchase and operate multiple laser welding stations to overcome the throughput bottleneck, which significantly increases capital equipment costs and energy consumption.
Civan's Dynamic Beam Laser
The EV Battery Cooling Plate Welding Solution.
With the adoption of new metal alloy–based cooling system designs, manufacturers are searching for faster, more efficient joining methods that will help them keep up with demand. Switching from vacuum brazing to Civan’s Dynamic Beam Laser technology helps cooling plate manufacturers achieve strong, leak-free wells at >25 m/min feed rates.
Providing tier 1 automotive companies a new solution for joining cooling plates using 5xxx and 6xxx aluminum alloys, Civan's Dynamic Beam Laser technology is more power efficient, allowing manufacturers to not only reduce costs and CO2 emissions but also increase weld speed and feed rates while achieving more rapid materials processing.
Civan’s Dynamic Beam Laser Welds Battery Cooling Plates at Feed Rates of >25 m/min Without Defects.
Increase Weld Speed and Feed Rates While Achieving More Rapid Materials Processing.
A Laser System, Controlled by a Beam Shaping Software.
Civan's Dynamic Beam Laser includes software that makes it easy to design the relevant beam shape, frequency, sequence, and focus; upload it to the laser; and see the effect on the weld using cross-section analysis. The simplicity and speed of this process make it possible to evaluate multiple shapes to optimize the best shape for welding the cooling plates.
Perfect Welds, Twice Faster.
Civan's Dynamic Beam Laser technology overcomes feed rate limitations when welding cooling plates for EV battery thermal management systems. Thanks to dynamic beam shaping, shape frequency of up to 50 MHz, shape sequences, and focus steering, the Dynamic Beam Laser achieves feed rates of >25 m/min, which is more than two times faster than brazing.